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Trivia:

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Jack is writing the aforementioned August 7 letter to Mary following the Cantor Joseff Rosenblatt recital, immediately after he writes the words "nearly stopped," there is a splice in the film (but not the soundtrack) and the insert of the writing is repeated at an earlier point so that Jack writes the same sentence again. This may have been to allow for a reel/disc change, since there is a conspicuous pause of silence in the middle of the shot where the music cue ends and another begins.See more »

Quotes:

[opening lines, first quote and first words in the first widely-seen talking picture] Jack Robin:Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'! You wanna hear "Toot, Toot, Tootsie"? All right, hold on, hold on... [then he walks back to one of the band members] Jack Robin:Lou, listen. Play "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", three chorus, you understand. In the third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to 'em hard and heavy, go right ahead.See more »

There's not much to say about this other than even today, for this
viewer, it is emotionally effective. Yes you know you are being
manipulated. Yes, the acting conventions of the silent screen are
comically exaggerated. Yes, it is shameless in setting up the ultimate
choice. But this is so well structured that even today it escapes
cliché. That's so remarkable, because big movies are almost always
turned into clichés as bits of them are digested and continuously
re-served to us as our visual grammar.

The love interest here is so unusual. He does fall in love with a
pretty dancer, but tells her plainly that his career is more important
than she is. She later doesn't become part of the choice  as would be
the case in nearly every other script  instead she becomes part of the
audience, presenting the dramatic quandary: the stage or God.

The presentation of religion is unique in my experience. Everyone here
is a Jew, except the performers. They are the "real" and everyone else
is "pretend," performing. Though there are many opportunities to fall
into obnoxious stereotypes, its avoided over and over. That's despite
the dozens of examples they had before.

In fact, there's an amazing engineering of story here. As any viewer
will know, this was the first talkie. It was new, and to emphasize its
newness a story was created to emphasize the contrast between old and
new.

This film is part silent, part "talkie." It shows a struggle between
the old (obviously obsolete) and the vital young. It also depicts in a
rather subtle but effective way the "old" god, and the new: there's
plenty of talk about the performance hall being a modern church. The
music as well: we have the implication that it is not only the setting,
the performer and the calling, but the music itself that is something
new.

Along the way we get street scenes of the Jewish area of New York.
These are genuine street scenes and are absolutely phenomenal: there
isn't anything I know that compares. There was an attempt of sorts in
"The Pawnbroker," which by itself was strong. But nothing compared to
this.

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